The Nation - News from Nov. 4, 1986

Evidence is growing that the genetic defect in Down’s syndrome is four times more likely to be transmitted to children by their mothers than their fathers, researcher Charles Epstein of UC San Francisco reported. Recent studies are also confirming that Down’s syndrome is caused when a child is born with an extra copy of a small piece of genetic material at the end of human chromosome No. 21. Genetic engineering is helping to explain how the excess genes are transmitted and, eventually, might lead to a treatment, Epstein said.